HypoActive

In November 2009, a team of three cyclists, one support driver and a dog flew to Chile to take on an extreme altitude cycling challenge in the high Andes.  Read more

The team included two long-term type 1 diabetics: Carolyn Maxwell, who drove the support vehicle; and Gavin Wright; as well as Devo, the hypo-alert dog. Gavin led the cyclists all the way from the beach to 5,400m above sea level – higher than Everest base camp.   

It took the team seven days (five days of cycling and two acclimatisation days) to reach Refugio Atacama (5,200m altitude), the second mountaineers’ camp on Ojos del Salado, the highest volcano in the world. The following morning Gavin and one other cyclist braved a sandstorm blowing at –20 degrees to carry on a farther 1½ km (another vertical 200m), but were forced to concede defeat when the track turned entirely to soft sand and they could cycle no further.

Apart from one big town along the route (Copiapo), the team travelled through entirely uninhabited, waterless country and so had a four-seater ute (generously paid for by Novo Nordisk) packed to its top tube with water and carbs. The support team (Carolyn) stopped every 10km, more frequently when the environment became hostile.

The team first crossed the Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth. Temperatures here went as high as 38 degrees, which had one cyclist recovering in the shade of the ute. The riders reached 2,500m altitude by the end of the second day. On the third day there was a terrific climb, up to 4,400m, followed by a 20km descent. Everyone enjoyed the downhill.

The fifth day of riding was possibly the toughest. The team rose from 4,500m to 5,200m, struggling all the way to pick out a cyclable path in the gravelly sand. Being early spring, there was still much ice and snow on the mountain. Great fields of melting stuff formed bizarre and beautiful shapes, but unfortunately these often covered the track and some considerable detours were necessary, always meaning descents and extra hard climbs. The 25km between refuges took all day.

It’s difficult to know what Devo thought was going on, but he looked a lot like Sir Edmund Hilary dressed up in his padded mountaineer’s jacket.
Despite some literature that indicates that both blood sugar meters and even insulin function less efficiently at extreme altitude, the two diabetics found their meters – both Optium Xceeds – worked normally. Although they needed warming up, control solutions showed the readings they were giving were quite accurate.
‘After reading about the possible problems with insulin,’ said Gavin, ‘I was expecting to have to increase my doses once we got up high. Didn’t happen, though. I was down to less than half my usual insulin input and battling all the way up to keep my readings over four. Once we were over 5,000m, nothing changed.’
Gavin takes injections of Protophane and Novorapid and Carolyn has a pump. Both are veterans of the annual HypoActive cycling event, the Murray to Moyne, and so are trained in frequent testing of bsl’s during events.
Gavin is a very keen promoter of exercise for type 1 diabetics. ‘I’ve been riding a bike for ten years now,’ says Gavin. ‘All this time I’ve found that the more I exercise, the better my management of diabetes becomes. It’s true that you have to be extra careful about hypos, but my experience has been that the benefits of regular, heavy exercise far outweigh this risk. It just makes it all more predictable and easier. Exercise – it’s the next best thing to a cure.
‘There are a number of things that could have stopped me taking my bike to South America and cycling up that volcano,’ said Gavin, ‘but diabetes is not one of them. It was tough, but it was an extraordinary experience and with simple vigilance in diabetic management (plenty of carbs and testing) I’m really glad to be able to say – diabetes didn’t stop me.’
Carolyn was the only one to record a ‘perfect’ 5.5. Not on the volcano, however, but sitting with a beer back in Santiago.

Photo credits: Gavin Wright, Hugh Harvey, Carolyn Maxwell